


Fireflies

by clotpoleofthelord (plantainleaf)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-12
Updated: 2013-09-12
Packaged: 2017-12-26 10:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/964742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantainleaf/pseuds/clotpoleofthelord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s an August evening, hot as hell, and Dean’s tired of sitting in the dark bunker with Sam and Cas and Kevin and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the swirling library dust.</p><p>They’ve been down there for weeks, seems like, researching and searching records and trying to find a way to locate and deal with all the angels that’ve peppered the world in their new vessels.</p><p>Cas came back to them just a month earlier, dirty and tired and painfully human, but alive. He’s been recuperating along with Sam, and the two of them have finally both recovered enough to be mobile and active and very, very grumpy.</p><p>And Dean’s had enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireflies

**Author's Note:**

> For castielmaroney, for the prompt "It's near the end of the summer and Cas hasn't ever seen fireflies. Dean wants to show him. Lots of fluff, smut optional." Thanks for being an awesome follower :)

It’s an August evening, hot as hell, and Dean’s tired of sitting in the dark bunker with Sam and Cas and Kevin and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the swirling library dust.

They’ve been down there for weeks, seems like, researching and searching records and trying to find a way to locate and deal with all the angels that’ve peppered the world in their new vessels.

Cas came back to them just a month earlier, dirty and tired and painfully human, but alive. He’s been recuperating along with Sam, and the two of them have finally both recovered enough to be mobile and active and very, very grumpy.

And Dean’s had enough.

He stands up, slamming shut the book in front of him, and reaches over to pull the pile of papers in front of his brother out of his reach. “Come on.” He claps Cas on the shoulder as Kevin stands as well, a little warily.

Sam leans back in his chair, a mulish look on his face. “Come where, Dean? I was in the middle of something.” He makes a half-hearted grab for the records but Dean pushes them to the end of the table, shaking his head. 

“Outside, Sammy. Remember _outside_? With the sun, and the wind, and no books or dust or research?”

“Dean–” it’s Cas, speaking hesitantly even as he stands to follow. “I need to figure this out. To find my brothers and sisters.”

Dean softens. “I know, Cas. And we will.” He throws an arm over the angel’s shoulders, leading him to the half-fridge they keep stocked with beer and snacks. “But right now, we need to take a break, because my eyes are crossing from all this research and I bet yours are too.”

Kevin pipes up. “I could use a break,” and closes his book as well. Dean grins at him, glad to see the kid taking his work a little less seriously, or at least less obsessively. Sam sighs and stands as well, and Dean pulls away from Cas to hand each of the three a beer and grab one for himself before leading the way out of the bunker.

Sam’s finally used to the hobbit door enough that he doesn’t whack his head on the way out, and Dean picks his way up the hillside to sit on the top of the door with his legs dangling over the entryway. Cas follows, walking carefully through the leaves and grass to perch on the edge beside him. Sam and Kevin follow up the other side, sitting alongside them.

Dean smiles fondly at his little family, these men who through birth or circumstance have come to live together in what has, for the last few weeks at least, been relative peace and harmony. Having a home, having a familythat’s not just him and Sam and all their love and baggage, is something he’s not had in a very long time. Now they’ve got Kevin and Charlie, Jody and Linda, Garth and Krissy and– _Cas._

He glances at the man next to him, the man who used to be so much more, and smiles. Cas is– Cas is _family_. Family in a way that Kevin and Charlie and everyone aren’t. Family like Sam is family, like Dad was, like Mom. Family like Samuel and Henry were never going to be, despite ties of blood and history.

Cas is watching something, eyes fixed in the distance, beer forgotten at his side as the crease between his eyes deepens.

“What’s up, Cas?” asks Dean, nudging the former angel’s shoulder with his own. “You okay?”

“Yes, Dean,” replies Castiel, still staring. “Are those– are those fireflies?”

Dean follows his gaze into the deepening dusk as Sam and Kevin murmur quietly beside him about taking a walk, both shifting off the concrete to stand on the path below. There are points of light in the trees, dancing and winking, no brighter than the stars that are slowly appearing in the sky above. “Yeah, Cas. You must have seen them before, right? I mean,  they’re just fireflies.”

Cas leans against him, shaking his head. “I haven’t, not as a human. I– when they were created, I watched the first flicker into life, and it was beautiful. There’s a special beauty in creatures that can create light. And– they look the same, Dean.”

Dean turns to him, leaning closer as Castiel’s voice gets quieter. “What do you mean, they look the same?”

“As an angel and a human. They– they’re the only being I’ve seen that looks the same as it did to me as an angel.” He pauses for a moment, then turns to Dean, his eyes wide in his tanned, scruffy face, and a distant part of Dean reminds him it’s time to remind Cas to shave. “The only other being that hasn’t dimmed is you, Dean.”

Dean can’t look away from Cas’s gaze, captivated by the honesty in his eyes. “I–” his voice is strangled, tight, “Cas–”

The world has narrowed to Cas, and the night air, and the cool glass of the beer in his hand, and the flickering lights that are circling nearer and nearer. And then it shrinks even more, to the feel of warm lips on his and fingertips wet with condensation against his cheek. 

His eyes drift closed as Cas leans even closer, their bodies curving together like two halves of a circle and their arms slipping around each other, fingers weaving into hair and searching under hems for skin. Their beers sit forgotten as they pull back by unspoken shared agreement, resting foreheads together and breathing quickly as their eyes open and meet. 

Cas’s eyes are wide, shocked, pupils large and glinting in the nearly-gone light of the long summer evening.

Dean feels like his emotions are spread across his face, everything he’s tried to keep inside for years spread across it like an open book. “ _Cas–_ ” he whispers, voice broken and small.

Cas’s eyes drift closed and he takes a deep, shuddering breath. _“Dean_.” It’s barely a breath, he’s so quiet, but somehow Dean can feel the weight of Cas’s millions of years of existence in that single exhalation and he pulls the former angel close, pressing their lips together again and giving in to the feeling that’s overwhelmed him and broken down all the walls he’s had up. _This is right_ , he realizes as Cas’s lips part against his, a quiet moan passing between them as barely a vibration. _This is–this is everything._

 


End file.
